{"id":107154,"date":"2026-07-23T11:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/107154\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T11:46:10","slug":"tour-de-france-stage-18-preview-summit-finish-serves-as-alpine-warm-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/107154\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Stage 18 preview: Summit finish serves as Alpine warm-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The peloton is getting closer and closer to the end of the Tour de France, but there are some very tough stages ahead.<\/p>\n

The Alps finally arrive in earnest at the Tour de France on Thursday, but don\u2019t expect the general classification contenders to go all-in just yet. (Probably. Maybe. Who knows anymore, really?)
Stage 18 covers 185.2 km from Voiron to Orci\u00e8res-Merlette, with 3,800 metres of climbing, but compared to what\u2019s waiting on Friday and Saturday, it\u2019s almost a warm-up. I mean, a helluva warm-up, but it\u2019s still not as brutal as what is coming up.<\/p>\n

If the GC riders are content to let a move go, it could make it the perfect day for the breakaway.<\/p>\n

Stage 18 of the Tour de France<\/p>\n

The route opens with two steady climbs, the Col d\u2019Engins (11.4 km at 5.4 per cent) and the C\u00f4te de Monteynard (9.7 km at 5.2 per cent), before a long rolling section toward the final ascent. The climb to Orci\u00e8res-Merlette is 7.1 km at 6.8 per cent, difficult enough to reward the strongest climbers, but not steep enough to force major gaps between the Tour\u2019s top contenders.<\/p>\n

With the race entering its final mountain block, Tadej Poga\u010dar and the other GC favourites may be content to let a strong escape go clear while saving their legs for the tougher summit finishes that follow. But anyone who wants to be up there still needs to be at the front on those climbs.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s how the stage unfolds, expect riders like Richard Carapaz or Ben Healy to be going for a win. They have been aggressive throughout this Tour and have repeatedly found the right breakaway without yet getting the result they wanted. That could change today.<\/p>\n

The GC riders<\/p>\n

The last time the Tour finished at Orci\u00e8res-Merlette, in 2020, Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d beat his compatriot, Tadej Poga\u010dar, in a sprint between the favourites. Six years later, the script looks very different. Unless someone launches an unexpected GC attack, Stage 18 has all the ingredients for the breakaway to finally cash in before the race heads into its decisive Alpine showdown.<\/p>\n

The summit finish is still tough, though, so even if a break is up the road, there will be a selection.<\/p>\n

Whether the guys going for the overall will be content to roll in together and simply sprint for it, or if someone goes on the offensive, remains to be seen. Does Pogi need to do a little opener to remind everyone who is boss? Or will he be OK if someone who is lower down in the standings makes a move?<\/p>\n

Although yellow is pretty much wrapped up, unless the world champ has bad luck or bad legs (the latter seems more and more unlikely, even if he is woken up in the middle of the night<\/a>), the fight for the podium\u2014between French hope Paul Seixas and Poga\u010dar\u2019s teammate Isaac del Toro\u2014is definitely alive. Double Olympic champ and double stage winner Remco Evenepoel has a considerable buffer in second place, but he has had bad days before in the mountains, so he will have to be in fine form over the next few days.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next at the Tour<\/p>\n

Friday ends in Alpe d\u2019Huez and should be decisive. Saturday is hardly a walk in the park, either. Sunday, the boys finally make it to Paris\u2014although remember, like last year, it\u2019s not the 50 km\/h+ ride around the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es. They will go over Montmartre, effectively shutting down the sprinters\u2019 chances of a stage.<\/p>\n

Coverage is on FloBikes.com<\/a>, and you can check back on Canadian Cycling Magazine for a full report after.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Affiliate links present. Canadian Cycling Magazine may receive commissions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The peloton is getting closer and closer to the end of the Tour de France, but there are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[16],"tags":[52362,50],"class_list":["post-107154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alps","tag-2026-tour-de-france","tag-alps"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116969130358141926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}